 When Darius and I wrapped up our fedi governance research earlier this fall, I knew that one of the next steps I most wanted to work on was a set of ways to make it much easier for potential fediverse members to find genuinely good homes here. And by good homes, I mean servers/instances that are as safe and well protected and optimally connected aand moderated—*for a given membership*—as possible. But took me six tries to write this intro post about it: 14 comments
But in the meantime: Why is the analogy about shoes? Because, like social media, shoes are often coded as kinda frivolous at best—but, like human communication and community, they're essential for surviving difficult conditions.  @kissane …and good luck to you if your feet are just a little bit different from what's the producer's expectation. Lastly, I think it's tempting for people who focus on fediverse problems (hi!) to want to wait until all the problems are fixed to invite new people in. I think this is worth really careful consideration. But also some of the problems will ease as more people (who are made aware of the risks and are willing to take them) come in and help enliven and enrich the ecosystem. That isn't—and shouldn't be— everyone, but for those folks, I want to help them find ways in.  I like this analogy, and I especially liked this bit: " a generous return policy ensures that you can return them for a refund and retain both your socks and your feet," 😅 (you have a typo, "snow" as "show" shortly after that)  @kissane Loved this. In terms of finding grants to sustain this pursuit, first I would look for papers on similar topics to see where they got funding. Also I apologize, I don't know much about the reputation of this organization but here are two possibles I found by looking for personhood and meaning grants: https://www.templeton.org/funding-areas/character-virtue-development  @kissane This is something I think about regularly, as the developer of a multi-user fedi project. Like the point you make about teaching users to understand and reason about governance is a great one. I have the same question, but for admins. And again for the project overall. How can the software/project help ask and answer those questions? How can it make the answers discoverable and legible to prospective members? I love that you're taking this on, and I'd love to help if I can. |
Gregory's Server
Because, it turns out, even EXPLAINING THE PROBLEM to non-fedi people gets very complicated very quickly.
I rewrote a more technical post five (5) times in the past couple of months and then tossed it and wrote the one above instead, because I always do better when I go back to human terms.
There's a lot more coming, including more technical stuff and deeper looks at why I think governance should be the crucial factor in server choice.